The present invention relates generally to the field of computers, and more particularly to online communication systems.
When people work in global environments, activities happen around the clock, even though not all participants are present. When someone is not available for a meeting, or misses a chat, there is no easy way for them to catch up.
Email systems (and phone systems, as well) have had out of office (OOO) capabilities for a long time. People manually enable these while going away from work, and mail systems send pre-configured response to any mail that a user receives until the setting is enabled, or phone systems redirect to the appropriate people. These features let the sender know that this person is away, and also, in some cases, redirect content to someone present who can handle the information.